ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the question of what addiction is. Researchers disagree about the very nature of addiction: how it should be defined; how it should be studied; what about it requires explanation; how it can be delineated from non-addictive drug use; what kind of thing it is; what kinds of things represent instances of it. It explores the importance of ideas of value, preference, choice, control, compulsion, belief, identity, explanation, disorder, dysfunction and evolution to the nature of addiction. The book considers researchers' practices of diagnosis, classification, and research methods, as well as two particular kinds of behavioral addictions and one particularly unusual kind of addict. It emphasizes the ethics of care and the importance of maintaining humanity in our relations with addicts, as well as bringing into focus the terrible distress and suffering addiction can involve.
